Conservation in the Fiji Islands
Nature at the centre of Fiji's Way of Life
The islands of Fiji provide one of the world’s most outstanding tropical marine environments, attracting escalating numbers of tourists and marine resource users from around the world every year. Fiji comprises of around 844 high islands, cays and islets, occupying an area of around 1.3 million sq km. The extent and remoteness of its shallow tropical marine habitats, from oceanic reefs to near-shore fringing reefs, mangrove forests, seagrass beds, lagoons, estuaries and deep oceanic drop offs, make it an area of high marine biodiversity, with many species unique to Fiji. Fiji is also home to the Great Sea Reef, the third longest barrier reef in the world.
Around 80 per cent of the population live on the coast and rely heavily on marine resources for food, livelihoods and cash income. Marine resources are also used for minerals, pharmaceuticals, construction material and a vast range of useful products. The major sources of economic growth and livelihood are fisheries, the third largest export industry accounting for 1.5 per cent of GDP, and the tourism sector, which accounts for 17 per cent of the GDP.
Over 80 percent of land is communally owned by indigenous Fijians. This customary tenure system in Fiji enables natural resource owners to have complete control over utilisation of resources within all of the inshore fishing areas or i qoliqoli.
Like many island ecosystems, Fiji’s marine biodiversity faces the growing threat of over-fishing, unsustainable fishing practices, unregulated extraction of other marine resources, land-based pollution, increasing sedimentation from logging and poor land-use practices, climate change and associated coral bleaching, as well as increasing tourism and urbanisation. In some Fijian communities, many popular varieties of edible mollusc and invertebrates are already facing the local extinction. In addition, marine environment is continuously impacted through natural events, such as cyclones. The cumulative effects of these impacts, coupled with the dependence of Fiji’s coastal communities on marine resources and limited alternative livelihood options are putting increasing pressure on the marine environment. The need to manage the Fiji Islands Marine Ecoregion (FIME) sustainably and in an integrated way is becoming increasingly imperative.
Fiji Islands Marine Ecoregion
The Fiji Islands Marine Ecoregion (view larger map) is considered the crossroads of the Pacific, by virtue of its geographical location. It is host to a unique ecological lattice threading and weaving together large expanses of coastal wetlands and mangroves; seagrass and algal beds, mudflats, lagoons; and a large diverse array of coral reefs. Encompassed within this vibrant ecological framework are over 390 coral species in a complex coral system housing over 1200 varieties of fish and a multitude of invertebrates. Mangrove and seagrass habitats act as breeding and feeding grounds for the various species of fish, invertebrates, reptiles and seabirds of this ecoregion. The ecoregion is also home to some unique marine life, like an endemic seabird, the Fiji petrel. There are seven known endemic species of fish in the Fijian waters and it's also a spawning ground for the endangered humphead wrasse and the worlds largest parrot fish, the bumphead parrot fish. Five of the seven species of marine turtle migrate through Fiji’s waters; the green, hawksbill, loggerhead, olive ridley , and leatherback turtle. Green and hawksbill turtles most commonly nest in Fiji, where the sea grass meadows are a critical foraging area for the green turtles.
Critically endangered turtles like the leatherbacks also use these waters as feeding and migratory paths. The warm waters are also important migratory routes for 12 species of whale. Four of these species, the blue whale musculus), sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis), the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) and sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), are considered to be endangered or vulnerable. In 2003, the Fiji government offered protection to these species by declaring Fiji’s territorial waters as a whale sanctuary.
Fiji's marine resources are important to its people from both a cultural perspective, and as a major source of food, minerals, pharmaceuticals, construction material and a vast range of useful products, as well as livelihoods and a source of cash income. The open seas within this region maintain viable offshore fisheries with great populations of tuna. Significantly, traditional patterns of community marine tenure, as well as indigenous ecological knowledge, can be incorporated into sustainably managing marine resources. Good local management with full community involvement is a strength of FIME conservation efforts and will ultimately contribute to both the sustainable livelihoods and empowerment of the communities involved. The islands economy depends heavily on its foreign exchange earnings from Fisheries and Tourism and there are high hopes that within the next few years these industries would be earning the tiny islands over a billion dollars.
Threats
Today, Fiji's marine biodiversity faces growing threats. These have not been well documented and as a result, are not well recognised outside of the Pacific. Threats include: climate change; coral bleaching; tourism; increased coastal settlement; destructive fishing practices such as explosives, night spear fishing and modern and traditional poisons for fishing; over-harvesting of key species; artisanal (subsistence) and commercial fishing pressures; inappropriate economic development activities; introduction of invasive alien species; point-source pollution (e.g. sewage, mining, industrial discharges, litter refuse disposal sites); non-point source pollution (fertilisers, herbicides, urban run-off); siltation of waterways and coastal areas from agricultural practices; logging and clearing of riparian vegetation leading to the degradation and loss of important coastal habitats in the marine environment. The cumulative effects of these impacts, coupled with the dependence of Fiji's coastal communities on the marine environment mean that it is imperative to manage these waters sustainably.
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
Many fishing communities around Fiji have shifted from subsistence living to a cash economy. Local commercial fishers frequently use diving equipment and spear guns, and until recently even poison, to catch fish and earn cash. However, some communities have decided to stop the decline of their marine environment. With WWF's help, villagers have come together to create a community-based management system that makes the most of their customary ownership rights. Through the Fiji Islands Locally Managed Marine Areas Network (FLMMA), communities can learn how to manage their own marine resources. FLMMA, of which WWF Fiji is a key member, is a partnership based on a social contract to work together : communities, NGOs and government agencies are members of the network and it continues to increase its community membership.
By working with the community to identify the best strategies for local resource owners to better manage their reef and increase their capacity to manage income-generating activities, some communities have turned to the traditional practice of reserving a fishing ground to increase fish population for a traditional ceremony. Several villages have now declared lagoons off limits to fishing, diving and other damaging activities. Elders in the community, who have watched the changes in fishing methods, have notcied an increase in fish stocks.
Also working with the government is a key factor to successful protection and through the Ministry of Fisheries, WWF and FLMMA works to ensure management plans are in place for communities to manage their fishing grounds.
In 2003, The National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan (NBSAP) identified priority marine areas for protection, as well as recommends the establishment of a representative netowrk of MPAs in ecological and biological sites. WWF Fiji was part of the coalition of national stakeholders that produced the NBSAP. It is through these recommendations that, in January of 2005, at the World Summit on Small Islands Developing Nations in Mauritus, the Fiji government declared a committment to protect 30% of its waters by 2020. Once established, this would be the largest marine network in the world.